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My guest today is Herb Williams-Dalgart, author of Jingle Boys listed in the Music category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/azuaBStafaI

• Herb's personal origin story behind the novel: named after his grandfather who died in WWII, a man he never knew, which sparked a lifelong fascination with the era.
• How the role of music in wartime, harmony versus the disharmony of war, became the central thematic engine of the novel.
• The surprising historical truth behind the jingle-as-secret-code premise, including Herb's research into declassified military records at the New York Public Library.
• Writing all the jingles and song lyrics himself and what he learned about the craft of songwriting in the process.
• His protagonist Walter Lipkin's anxiety neurosis (stress-triggered fainting) and why a hero whose greatest enemy is his own brain felt both authentic and timely, written as it was during COVID.
• The recurring theme across Herb's work: finding courage in unlikely places, and why that feels both personal and hopeful.
• His screenwriting background (UCLA certificate) and what it gives him as a novelist: cinematic pacing, three-act structure, and crisp, character-revealing dialogue.
• The fascinating true story of the Steinway Victory Vertical, the olive-drab piano the US government authorized for every theater of war, and how it found its way dramatically into the novel.
• Reading from Jingle Boys.
• Herb's take on plotting versus pantsing, and why he calls himself a "paraglider."
• His next project: Everything the Sea Brings, Book 1 of a trilogy set in Northern Ireland, told from the dual perspectives of a lighthouse keeper's wife and a German sailor who washes ashore with secrets.

Read more about Herb Williams-Dalgart on his website: https://www.herbthewriter.com

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Chanel Cleeton, author of The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes listed in the Literature category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FN2q5JDLLEk

• Chanel's inspiration for the novel as her love letter to books and a celebration of the power of reading.
• Her passion for exploring more about Cuban American history and her own heritage as the child of Cuban immigrants.
• Use of three time periods in the novel and the role played by the Spanish-American war in 1900, particularly the cultural exchanges between the US and Cuba that took place.
• How the novel feels topical given the current political situation.
• Challenges of writing a triple time novel with three main characters.
• Use of suspense in the novel.
• Which of the three characters (Ava in 1900, Pilar in 1966 and Margo in 2024) Chanel identifies with most.
• Chanel's favorite book (or books)!
• Reading from The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes.
• One thing that Chanel learned from writing this novel that she didn't realize before.
• What Chanel is working on now.

Read more about Chanel Cleeton on her website: https://www.chanelcleeton.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of Isabela's Way listed in the Textile Arts category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/R-0wUhdrD00

• How Barbara got the idea to write a novel set in the 17th century during the Inquistion: inspiration resulting from a cycling trip in Portugal.
• History of the Inquistion in Europe and how it was not formally ended until 1837.
• Use of embroidery and symbols as a way to communicate while fleeing the Inquistion.
• Value as an author to engage in a character's pursuits (for example, embroidery) as a way to research.
• Barbara shows off the embroidery she did that became the cover of Isabela's way.
• How traveling helps research.
• Plausibility and the role it plays in writing historical fiction.
• Character of Ana in Isabela's Way--a strong woman who is both a healer and a role model.
• Reading from Isabela's Way.
• One thing that Barbara learned from writing this novel that she didn't realize before.
• Writing as a voyage of discovery.
• What Barbara is working on now.

Read more about Barbara Stark-Nemon on her website: https://www.barbarastarknemon.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage: Novel of the Brontë Sisters listed in the LIterature category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eYPoIKk9pOk

• Why Stephanie decided to write about the Brontë sisters inThe Man in the Stone Cottage; how she first read and loved Wuthering Heights when she was a young girl.
• How the story is told from the point of view of both Charlotte and Emily.
• The character of Emily, author of Wuthering Heights; how she was very solitary but also an excellent cook.
• Did the "man in the stone cottage" who Emily falls in love with in the love exist? Stephanie says he's both real and not real.
• How the sisters wrote their novels and how their struggles contributing to them being able to write.
• Is the author the least expert on a book because it comes through them?
• Time spent in Haworth and how moving it was to go to the parsonage and see where they lived and worked.
• How and why the parsonage was preserved and how the curators are still collecting items from all over the world.
• The portrait of the sisters hanging in the National Portrait Gallery and the story behind why it was damaged.
• Theme of The Man in the Stone Cottage.
• One thing that Stephanie learned from writing this novel that she didn't realize before.
• What Stephanie is working on now.

Read more about Stephanie Cowell on her website: https://www.stephaniecowell.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Tea Gudek Šnajdar, author of Following Van Gogh listed in the Visual Arts category on Art In Fiction. Here's a summary of the podcast:

• Inspiration for the novel that combines travel writing with a thriller.
• Fascination with the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and how his color palette changed as he moved from the Netherlands to Paris to Arles.
• The "what if" that inspired Tea to make a forged painting central to her novel.
• What is it about the paintings of Van Gogh that Tea and millions more find so compelling.
• The role that Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo has played in cementing his legacy.
• Tea's experience as a guide at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
• Reading from Following Van Gogh.
• One thing that Tea learned from writing this novel that she didn't realize before.
• What's next?

Read more about Tea Gudek Šnajdar on her website: https://culturetourist.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Louis Bayard, author of The Wildes listed in the Literature category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ukomPza-Oh0

• Why write about Oscar Wilde through the lens of his family life?
• Inspiration for the novel from the memoir of Vivian Wilde, the youngest of the two sons of Oscar and Constance.
• Challenges of writing about one of the great wits in the English language.
• Structure of The Wildes as a play in five acts in a high comedy register.
• Constance Wilde as the protagonist of the novel, and how she was very progressive for her time, and very much Oscar's equal.
• Lady Wilde (Oscar's mother), the fiery Irish revolutionary poet named Speranza.
• Oscar Wilde and his relationship to women, seeing them as equals.
• What can contemporary audiences learn from The Wildes, particularly the "fifth act" of the novel?
• Reading from The Wildes.
• One thing that Louis learned from writing this novel that he didn't realize before.

Read more about Louis Bayard on his website: https://www.louisbayard.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Alka Joshi, author of four novels listed on Art In Fiction including Six Days in Bombay listed in the Visual Arts category.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eYPoIKk9pOk

• Inspiration for Six Days of Bombay and its relationship to the real life story of artist Amrita Sher-Gil.
• Background on Amrita Sher-Gil and how her personality and sometimes shocking activities influenced the creation of Mira Novak in Six Days of Bombay.
• Why Alka chose to write a novel about a fictional version of Amrita, rather than about the real artist.
• How Alka chose to frame Mira's story by telling it through the eyes of Sona Falstaff, the nurse who cared for Mira during the last six days of her life in a private hospital in Bombay.
• Background on Anglo Indians as inspiration for the character of Sona who must navigate two worlds after her British father abandoned her and her mother.
• Mira as archetype for the independent woman of the 1930s, that there were more of them then we think.
• How Sona is most like Alka herself compared to the other characters she has written.
• The role of grief for a mother played in the novel.
• Europe in the 1930s and its parallels to India during the same period.
• Researching the novel in Paris, London, Prague, Florence, and Istanbul.
• Reading from Six Days in Bombay.
• One thing that Alka learned from writing this novel that she didn't realize before.
• Alka's next novel, due out in late 2026/early 2027 about a girl wanting to learned classical dance in India when its practice was forbidden.

Read more about Alka Joshi on her website: https://www.alkajoshi.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.

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My guest today is Christine Ma-Kellams, author of The Band listed in the Music category on Art In Fiction.

View the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZopqRgR9xG4

• Inspiration for The Band and its relationship to pop music, K-Pop, and popular culture.
• Motivation for writing The Band as a commentary on what may be happening behind the scenes of a successful K-Pop boy band.
• The novel as a scatching indictment of fandom and how the industry often turns a blind eye to the mental health of its stars.
• How our brains are not wired for interacting via screens with people we will never meet--what this is doing to our mental health.
• Discussion of the novel's narrator and the concept of situationships.
• The role of cancel culture in the novel and in contemporary culture.
• The Band as fan fiction meets literary fiction.
• Is all fiction essentially fan fiction since we write about what we love?
• Use of first and second person in the novel--breaking the fourth wall and inspiration from the TV series Fleabag.
• Is The Band a thriller?
• Outlining vs. starting to write and hoping for the best.
• The theme of The Band.
• Reading fromThe Band.
• Things that Christine learned from writing her novel - the wisdom of authors rewarding readers.
• What's next for Christine.

Read more about Christine Ma-Kellams on her website: https://www.christinema-kellams.com/

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at

Are you enjoying The Art In Fiction Podcast? Consider giving us a small donation so we can continue bringing you interviews with your favorite arts-inspired novelists. Click this link to donate: https://ko-fi.com/artinfiction.

Also, check out Art In Fiction at https://www.artinfiction.com and explore 2300+ novels inspired by the arts in 11 categories: Architecture, Dance, Decorative Arts, Film, Literature, Music, Textile Arts, Theater, Visual Arts, & Other.

Want to learn more about Carol Cram, the host of The Art In Fiction Podcast? She's the author of several award-winning novels, including The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, The Muse of Fire, and The Choir. Find out more on her website.